Bruce Hoult wrote:
I think the "full" DG1000, while a slightly more expensive, is an even
better value for the money.

Maybe, but we didn't have that much to spend. The cheapest one was
already a stretch.

This real-world argument is hard to beat.

We also specifically wanted fixed undercarriage to make it simpler and
avoid expensive training errors.

You don't *need* to retract the gear, you know. Plus, there's an
acoustic gear warning.

In our club, the primary single seater for students is the LS4 (with
gear warning, too, as we've put one into all our gliders). We have the
rule that they just don't touch the gear on their first three or
somesuch flights. Not because we fear a belly landing, the gear warning
would prevent this, but because we don't want them being distracted.
Works fine for us. Besides, I believe that if a student gets used to the
gear from the very beginning, it will pretty soon become second nature.
But we fly from a grass airfield, a club with a concrete runway may see
this less relaxed.

The lower stance also makes it much easier to get in and out.

I heard the rumor that DG plans a "DG 1000 executive" edition.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2891752/DG%2...0Executive.jpg

Did you really do a downward outside loop with the DG? The DG being that
slippery, I didn't dare yet. (Besides that the POH does not allow for
it, but that's a different question.)

I don't do aerobatics, but I'm pretty sure I did see it in the POH.
I'll check next time I'm at the field.

I do know for sure that it isn't. The POH has a pretty restrictive list
of allowed figures. E.g. the cuban eight is not on it, and after the
experience I described in an earlier post, I now know why. Still doable,
of course, but you must know what you're doing. I wouldn't dare to try
an outside loop, though. The DG is much too slippery, combined with a
good cross country profile which performs poorly on negative figures.